Facilitation of economic partnerships and cultural understanding among the U.S. and NIS government, private sector companies and educational institutions remains an utmost priority for our organizations. During the summer and fall of 1996, the ARCCI/AECC directors traveled to Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and Ukraine to gather new trade leads and plan joint activities with partner organizations and supporters.
Our chambers also are successfully expanding domestically, and have established important alliances with several U.S. organizations sharing our mission and goals. These include the Citizen's Democracy Corps, Inc., the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce (Washington, D.C.), Pennsylvania - Russian Business Council, the World Trade Center Associations in Cleveland and Minneapolis, the Center for Business Intelligence, and the Council for International Understanding in Des Moines.
We continued productive cooperation with the Embassy and Trade Representation of the Russian Federation in the United States, the U.S. Department of Commerce International Trade Administration, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, EXIM Bank, Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the U.S.-Russian Investment Fund, the U.S.-Russia Business Council, the Council for Trade and Economic Cooperation CIS-USA, and the U.S.-NIS Chamber of Commerce in Miami.
Significant progress was made in building the chambers' NIS network. While recently visiting Russia, the ARCCI strengthened networking with the Presidential Administration, Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, Ministry of Economy, State Property Committee and Regional Administrations in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Irkutsk, Vladimir, Tver and Togliatti. Cooperative plans were discussed with the Russian Federation "SODVNESHTORG," the Academy of the Parliamentary Corps of the Russian Federation, Moscow Fund of Presidential Programs, the International Banking Institute, All-State Russian Television Network, Baltic International Scientific Technological Park of St. Petersburg, Sberbank, Bank MENATEP, St. Petersburg Fuel Company, "Moskva - Krasnye Holmy" Joint Stock Company, and the EXPOCENTR.
To facilitate networking with the NIS, the AECC started a series of outreach projects with Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine. The AECC hosted several delegations of business leaders and government officials from the NIS countries. Agreements were reached to open the AECC branches in Yerevan, Dnepropetrovsk and Tbilisi.
All these efforts are aimed at the establishment of long-term partnerships with the U.S. and NIS government, private sector companies, and educational institutions and have already helped to enhance and diversify the array of membership services. The highlights of these include assistance with invitations, visas, travel arrangements, translations and legalization of documents, registration of representative offices and company accreditation. The ARCCI/AECC will continue its focus on outreach and networking and will strive to provide stronger practical support and guidance to our members.